Clothes-pin



(No Model.) i

S. D. JOHNSTON.

GLGTHES PIN. No. 260,297. Patented June 2?;18-82.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

SAMUEL D. JOHNSTON, OF' PARIS, ILLINOIS.

CLOTHES-PIN.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 260,297, dated June 27, 1882,

Application filed February 20, 1882. (No model.) a

To all whom it may concern Be it known that I, SAMUEL D. JOHNSTON, of Paris, county of Edgar, and State of Illinois, have invented certain Improvements in Clothes-Pins, of which the following is a specification.

The object of my invention is to provide a clothespin made of such material that it will last a great while in the open air, and of such form that it will act as a spring and hold the clothes-line with sufficient force against the wind and other forces accidently exerted, may be easily operated,-and cheaply-manufactnred.

My device may be made of any material having the desired or requisite elasticity, and not liable to the corrosive action of the oxygen in air and water. The material, however, which I prefer is galvanized steel wire.

I will now proceed to describe the form, construction, and operation of my said device with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which- Figure 1 represents a side elevationof the same; Fig. 2, a like View of the same, but showing it mounted upon a rope or wire as it would be in actual use, and Fig. 3 a top View of the device.

A single piece of wire, A, about midway of its length is bent into two or more rings and 'formsa spiral spring, B, as shown in.Fig. 3; but it may be bent into one coil only, or into more than two, and after the coil or coils have thus been formed the residue of the wire is bent into two loops, 0, and its outer ends are bent around the outer vertical bars, 0, thereof into horizontal loops l, of sufficientlength and breadth to allow the upper portions of vertical bars 1) free play horizontally, so that when the rope or wire D is inserted between them they will grasp it and resist its removal with sufficient power by the wind or any other undesigned force. The spiral B not only afl'ords elasticity to the loops, but it also serves as a handle'for the device to be used in putting the line or wire in or removing it, and the upper portions of the inner bars, I), yield laterally, being allowed to do so by the horizontal loops Z, and serve to grasp the line or wire D, while the lower portions of-said bars approach each other as the result of the forcing of their upper ends asunder, and so they resist the removal of the-rope or wire.

The horiz ontal loops I serve as convenient handles in mounting the device upon the line.

What I claim as myinvention, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

The described clothes-pin, having the spiral spring B and the spring-loops 0, each composed of the "ertical bars a and b, the bars I) being bent attheir upper extremities into the horizontal loops 1 to inclose the vertical bars 0, adapted to grasp and hold the clothes line or wire at the upper end and resist its removal downward from between the said loops 0 at the lower end, substantially as described.

SAM. D. JOHNSTON.

Witnesses:

LoUIs GRIMME, WILLIAM L. FoULKE. 

